Urge to kill rising. I find the reaction here far more threatening than both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street combined.

Seriously, just read through a bunch of these. It paints an ugly picture.

If you really need access to blacked out Wikipedia pages, Google’s cache feature works wonders.

All in all it kicks ass.

This week covered Grunge – trying to see where it fit and talking to the artists to see where they felt they fit into the big picture of heavy music and metal. Which leads me to my point:

Back in the day, ‘typical’ grunge folk (the artists, fans, bands – the scene) struck me exactly as the stereotype portrayed them…as whiny, mopey, pretentious faux-intellectuals who took themselves too seriously and were too cool for anything.

Upon seeing these people 20 years later as full grown adults in their 40′s and pushing 50, I was surprised (or maybe I wasn’t) to find that nothing has changed. Except it’s even more eye-roll worthy and rage inducing to see them still acting like that.

I can sum up most of the interviews like this, “Heavy music before us sucked. Heavy music since us is a rip off…and sucks. You’re stupid if you like anything else. Music reached perfection back in my day when I was coming of age and I don’t realize that everyone thinks that about the music they grew up with. I’ve become exactly the walking stereotype I claim to stand against. Get off my lawn.”

These people were lame 20 years ago and they’re still lame today. Not enough of them killed themsleves. But there is hope – many of the bands are getting back together so there just might be some additional overdoses and shotgun blasts in their futures. We can hope, right?

—

And Geico brought back the stupid-ass wee-wee-wee pig for a new commercial and I hope whoever made that decision goes on tour with one of the fucking reunited grunge bands.

I cannot express how much I love this. LOVE!

I think he’s dead on. In fact it’s scary how much he took directly from my head…almost word for word. I’d also add that the same generation also grew up in uncommonly prosperous economic times as well – their entire youth as a generation was about unrealistic expectations top to bottom.

Ass douches!

Then I bitched some more in February of this year. Then again back in May.

It’s to the point where I’m just going to complain everytime I get a bill because they add a few dollars to it every time. This time the bill jumped $6.90 over the last one. Our history of Waste Management bills since moving into the house:

May 2009 – 62.62
Aug 2009 – 64.49
Nov 2009 – 64.69
Feb 2010 – 68.79
May 2010 – 69.86
Aug 2010 – 69.36
Nov 2010 – 74.58
Feb 2011 – 75.51
May 2011 – 78.15
Aug 2011 – 85.05

That’s a 38% increase since our first bill. Why is this acceptable?

Soon the wind whipped into a frenzy and trees bent impossibly far. We heard a craaack and had a huge hunk fall beside the house, about 15 or 20 feet away from where we sttod at the mouth of the garage. I lamented about having to clean it up tomorrow and wondered which tree it actually came from. The storm was impressive, lots of distant, rumbling thunder that lasted for quite a while. The rain rolled in and got more and more intense and the refreshing cool air filled the garage.

It was everything awesome about a summer storm. Satisfied, we closed the garage and came back in. Soon the AT&T service went out – no TV or internet. We had drumsticks. It came on about 10 or 15 minutes later. The thunder continued rumbling the house.

Just after 10pm the doorbell rang. I honestly expected it to be someone telling us one of our trees fell on something or someone or somewhere. It was one of our neighbors letting us know their big tree had fallen and was now blocking the street. A police car was parked next to the tree with his lights on. Apparently our little cul-de-sac was a public hazard at this point. They let us know that while all the proper people had been notified and the city would eventually be out to remove the tree, that there were lots of calls because of the storm and on the priority list, 6 houses on a cul-de-sac ranked pretty low and there was a good chance it’s still be there in the morning and nobody would be getting to work – which is a problem for everyone except for me and the old people that live beside us.

It was the largest tree on the left of this photo from a previous post:

It must’ve snapped off very near ground level because even in the dark, I can see the big bushy top of that tree is lying in the neighbor’s driveway on the right side of the photo – effectively creating a tree barricade on our little street. It’s going on 1am as I type this and the cop is still sitting out the with his lights on. I guess it’s a precaution. Don’t want anyone to whip into the cul-de-sac and smack right into the tree.

So here’s to hoping they don’t get to it and we get a freebie day around here tomorrow.

I don’t take coasters too seriously. A lot of the dork community does though – to the point where it’s a turn off. Seems like the more ‘passionate’ someone is about roller coasters, the more time they spend complaining – this ride has the wrong restraint system or too many brakes or it used to be great and the park ruined it or the third screw on the back seat of the fifth car was turned a half-turn too tight. It really gets that silly. Like people get emotional over it. For real.

All I’ve learned over the past 10 years is that the more of an ‘enthusiast’ you supposedly are, the more it seems like something coming out of your mouth on the subject is going to be a complaint. Makes me wonder why people spend so much time and money on a hobby they seem to hate so much.

Be a coaster dork, not a coaster tool. I mean the whole scene is full of social misfits as it is, don’t make it any worse for us. I don’t mind that as a whole you’re overwhelmingly gay, fat, cheap and ugly. Just quit fucking complaining so much about things that matter so little – even in the context of a hobby that’s ridiculous to begin with.

I’ve been lucky to find a social circle within the hobby that keeps it reasonable. Thanks guys (you know who you are) for not being one of them (they probably don’t know who they are) – and a few of them do play in the backyard. Which is why I get annoyed that I occasionally overhear their stupidity.

(On a side note, I wonder how many of these people have ever ridden a wagon down a hill in the woods, because based on the complaints, that’s apparently the ‘purist’ ride they’re after.)

Here’s where I should point out that since we got the new car, the old car has been sitting out and the new car goes in the garage. Not sure why we’re not putting both in (still issues with getting comfortable with the fit, I suppose), but when we take the new car, the old car gets parked along the curb right at the end of the driveway by the mailbox. Everytime we return home and turn into the cul-de-sac, I get that quick startled rush of “Who is parked at the house?” because nothing really changes on our little street and it stands out like a sore thumb. It’s happened every single time I make the turn up our cul-de-sac since we’ve been putting the car there.

So tonight I turn in and have that moment when I spot the old car up at the end of the street near our driveway, but also notice another car at the opposite corner of our lot, closest to the turn in to the cul-de-sac. This really caught my attention because at 11pm, cars parked in front of the house are certainly out of place. But it was pretty far down – almost to the next house’s driveway. I chalked it up to company at their place parking there which is not unheard of, but is rare and super rare late at night. Needless to say, the car caught my attention and I looked at it as we approached and passed. It was empty. Which is what sort of solidified my initial guess of neighbor company.

So I continue past our house into the ‘circle’ of the cul-de-sac. Our driveway connects to the circle so essentially pulling into our driveway is like making a u-turn. Come up the street towards the circle at the “6 o’clock” position, hook a hard left and hit the driveway at the “8 o’clock” position. Our mailbox is just to the left of the driveway (when you’re facing it). It’s one of those birck column mailboxes with the actual mailbox built in. The old car gets pulled just past it. Kind of what would be the “7 o’clock” position, if you will. Make sense? Got the visual?

Anyway, I continue past our house into the circle, hit the garage opener, hook the hard left and as hit the driveway and get right next to the mailbox this girl in a black hoodie pops up and starts walking away. She was kneeling behind our mailbox/car. I’m like, “Whoa! What the fuck!?” My wife hadn’t noticed and I’m going, “There’s someone hiding there!” She’s all, “What!?”

I pulled into the garage and she jumps out of the car hitting the ‘lock’ button for the old car on her keychain making the lights flash and horn beep repeatedly as if throwing virtual punches of some kind. Next thing I hear is, “What the fuck are you doing near my car!? Get the fuck away from my car!” (my wife is so badass)

I hear a raspy female voice going, “I know! I know! I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I mean you no harm.” I hesitated a moment as I got out of the car. The kids were still in the back. I had a moment of pause, not sure whether to go out around the garage with my wife and confront the girl or to stay with the kids or what.

The girl went on, “I got into a fight with my grandmother and she called the cops.” She gave her address, which if I remember correctly, was for a house on the other side of the woods behind the house on the main road behind us. (but I’m not entirely sure if I filled in that blank correctly or not, in the confusion no one was taking notes).

She kept talking, “I climbed over the fence and I’m waiting for my ride.” Now that’s interesting because there is an old, rusty wire fence along the top back park of our property that kind of turns to barbed wire and disappears. Barely a fence, really.

While this is happening, I told the kids to get out of the car and got them inside then walked out to my wife.

At the same time, my wife with her cell phone in hand starts dialing 911. The girls goes, “Oh there it is now” and beelines for the car parked at the other end of the yard. My wife tells the 911 people someone was messing around our house but they’re leaving. She hangs up. The girl gets in the passenger side of the car and it takes off and makes a left out of the cul-de-sac.

We’re both like, “What the fuck was that?” She goes over to the car and looks for a minute then unlocks it and I say, “Go try to find them” and she’s like, “Yeah!” and off she goes.

I go back into the garage and grab a flashlight and start looking around. Shining the light into the woods, I noticed I left the shed open when doing some yardwork earlier. I hear a little movement, but nothing that couldn’t have been a critter or something. Still I wasn’t going back in there by myself to lock it up. I pulled out my cell and called my wife who had circled a few of the streets around us, but saw nothing. She was just coming back. I had her high-beam the woods where the shed sits and I went back and locked it up.

She pulled into the driveway and we grabbed flashlights and circled all around the house and yard, but saw nothing and nothing looking particularly out of the ordinary. Satisfied that whoever was there was all gone, we realized we left the kids in the house alone, closed up the garage and came in and looked around the house just to be sure.

I have to admit it was a little unnerving and pretty fucking weird. It doesn’t sound like much, but the 10 minutes of that confused rush was really crazy.

We settled down and tried piecing the weirdness together.

We all agreed the girl was in a black hoodie and my daughter said dressed all in black. My wife saw her the most and said her hair was either blond or very light brown and she had light eyes and was scared shitless at being conforonted and was shaking. He tone of voice sounded as much to me from the garage. She would have put her in her mid-20′s age wise which suprised me because from the rapsy quality of the voice, I’d have said grizzled 40-something. But I didn’t see her well. I would have called her blond from what I did see.

As for that car, I’d put the percentage at 90% to 95% that it was empty when we pulled up the road. I’m pretty damn sure someone wasn’t reclined or ducking. We both agreed that it was a small black (dark colored?) Toyota car – based solely on the emblem on the car. Neither of us thought quickly enough to get the plate number…and that pisses me off the most.

What scares me the most is that if the car was empty (and like I said 90% to 95% sure it was) and the girl got in the passenger side when it took off, who else was there and where were they as we pulled in and confronted the girl?

If I’m remembering the address she gave correctly, the fight-and-left story sort of adds up right until she hides behind our mailbox/car as we pull up our street. Why would she be hiding from cars if she was waiting for a ride? The psoition she was in would have been a perfect hiding place for anybody coming up the cul-de-sac with the sole exception of us coming home. And why would she leave a main road, cut through the small woods and wait for a ride on a small, side cul-de-sac? And why didn’t she see the car that was supposedly her ride sitting there before we pulled up? The car was clearly parked and turned off and empty when we pulled in. Why would her ‘ride’ be empty waiting for her?

I dunno. Something doesn’t add up. I generally don’t get wigged by much, but the whole thing felt “off” to us. So her I sit at 2:30am putting these thoughts down so I don’t lose them and sharing the story. I did turn all the outdoor lights on and closed up the windows and turned the air conditioner on. Don’t know why. If anything the moment you confront someone suspicious and they bail, is probably the time there’s the least chance that someone is nosing around outside.

I jokingly told my wife I think it was adisgruntled Meijer employee because earlier today I filled out one of those survey things they print on the bottom of receipts and ripped them a new one because they’ve fallen so hard. You have to add you name and address on those before you submit them. Clearly it was a disgruntled deli employee with a grudge.

I think I’ll stay up extra late tonight, just to be safe.